Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed that academy graduate Angel Gomes, who made his first-team debut at the age of just 16 in May 2017, looks likely to leave the club when his contract expires this week.
Gomes is out of contract on 30 June and the club have not managed to reach an agreement with the 19-year-old about extending his stay at Old Trafford.
“Got no news, nothing, so doesn't look like [he will stay],” Solskjaer conceded as he spoke to the media via video conference ahead of this week’s Premier League clash with Brighton.
“It seems like they haven't managed to agree.”
Earlier this month, Solskjaer had expressed hope that a deal was not far away. But that now appears to be unlikely unless there is a sudden last minute breakthrough.
Gomes first joined United’s youth system at the tender age of just six and was something of a prodigy as he rose through the ranks, first representing an Under-17 side while he was only 13.
He was called into the first-team by then manager Jose Mourinho for the final day of the 2016/17 season and made his debut when he replaced Wayne Rooney from the bench. That made Gomes United’s youngest player since Duncan Edwards in 1953, while he is also the youngest ever winner of the club’s prestigious Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award.
However, chances for Gomes have been difficult to come by and he has played only nine further games for the first-team in three years since.
Now at a crucial stage of his career as he approaches his 20th birthday, it has previously been reported that Gomes has concerns about a lack of game time if he were to sign a new deal.
It was also reported at the same time that, despite United’s best offer being worth £30,000 per week and £1.5m over the course of a whole year, the player’s representatives have been underwhelmed.
Solskjaer is thought to have taken a ‘dim view’ of the saga and Gomes’ absence from the first-team picture for around three months earlier this season is said to have been a result of that.
It is unclear where Gomes will go when he leaves Old Trafford, but Chelsea have previously been described as ‘confident’ they will sign him. The likes of Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have also been credited with interest at various points in the past.
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Source : 90min